Monday, August 3, 2009

Raul's Saturday speech

Raul Castro gave a speech on Saturday that made some news and confirmed some news that had been circulating in the past week: new government spending cuts have been approved by the Council of Ministers; a national auditor has been named; tourist visits are up this year (2.9 percent) but tourism revenues are down; 7,800 retired teachers have returned to the classroom and 7,000 teachers have delayed retirement; and the escuelas en el campo, boarding schools where high school students live and work, are being phased out as a cost-cutting measure.

The speech was more interesting than the one he gave on July 26, in my view, because of the political content in two passages, one directed at the United States, the other at the Cuban public.

Raul gave sort of an assessment of the new U.S. Administration’s approach to Cuba.It could have been titled, “Not Overly Excited About Obama.”He noted some positive elements: resumption of the migration talks, and the announcement of new policies, not yet implemented, regarding Cuban American travel and remittances.He also noted that the embargo hasn’t changed at all, and Cuba remains on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.He began by noting that with Costa Rica and El Salvador resuming diplomatic relations with Cuba, all countries in the hemisphere except one have taken that step.“One could ask which country is isolated in this region, it doesn’t seem to be Cuba,” he said.Raul’s real purpose, it seemed, was to reiterate once again that Cuba is willing to talk with the United States “about everything, I repeat, everything,” but not “to negotiate our political or social system.”

To the Cuban public, Raul explained, more clearly than did last week’s Cuban media coverage, the postponement of the Communist Party Congress that was supposed to take place in late 2009.The reason: policies that need to be discussed are not sufficiently formulated.“The task [of the Party and the people] has to do with defining…the economic model that will guide the life of the nation to the benefit of our compatriots and assure the irreversibility of the country’s socio-political regime,” he said.One example of issues under study, he pointed out, is “the complex process of monetary unification to end the double currency.”A Congress “would not make sense and would not have content” if it were not to treat issues such as this in depth and “set guidelines for the future.”

In other words, his economic policy process may be gradual, but it’s not done yet.

In the meantime, Raul has convoked a “national conference” of the Communist Party, “fundamentally” for the task of making changes in the membership of the Party’s central committee, political bureau, and secretariat.

11 comments:

Anonymous
said...

It looks like Raul Castro pulled a sort of party coup. The PCC statutes do not contemplate "conferences" but they require regular (every 5 years?) party congresses. In the past the party congress was organized by a trusted ideologue (Aldana with under Machado Ventura's vigilance organized the last one). It could very well be that Raul Castro does not have a trusted ideologue and he is not ready to risk the sort of base discussions that precede a PCC congress. He does not seem to control the Party militants at this time. At best he controls the FAR, and the MININT. Enough to hold power but not to govern organically. Another bad sign is that he admitted that there is no clear idea what needs to be discussed at the next PCC congress. This could be a sign of the hardening of the arteries of power and that is not good for Cuba, and definitely it is not good for US-Cuba relations. The Cuban government is reactive not proactive.

could this Congress move be a savvy move waiting for Fidel to drop dead? Nothing is going to change with him still breathing. It will be much easier to "formulate" policies without the spectre of Fidel haunting the proceedings.

what raul is doing is proactive, (re double currency) regardless. vecino consistently wraps pure speculation with fantasy of insight. unless, he is a deep mole in the council of states. in that case believe every word he says.

I like to correct two mistatements in my previous post. The PCC statutes does allow for party conferences between party congresses, and Aldana did not organize the last PCC congress but the one before that one. By the last PCC congress Aldana was already out of power. I stand by the rest of my observations. It is regrettable that the two posters who objected to my comments did not point out those errors. Having said that, I stand by every other comment that I made, and I confirm that the PCC statutes require that party congresses be held every five (5) years in a regular fashion. The PCC congresses are supposed to be called with six months notice, and the agenda is supposed to be announced then. But please don't take my word for it, look it up!

A PCC congress can be the closest thing that Cuba has to a US constitutional convention: Everything could be discussed, and new personalities and policies could emerge. That's why it is imperative that the delegates to the PCCC congress be carefully vetted. Fidel Castro made sure that no wild cards could emerge in the last five congresses. Raul Castro's speech (on paper) sounded surefooted at first but rather loose at the end when he discussed his plans for the PCC. PCC cadres must have noticed this. His insistence on turning back to "productive" activities could foreshadow a massive forced migration to rural areas. Technically the vagrancy laws could be used to send able bodied men to work in the fields.

Good observation! Technically Fidel Castro could be removed from the Central Committee in the PCC conference that was announced. Maybe that's the idea behind the conference. It could also be Raul Castro's attempt to purge the PCC the way he purged the government councils.

Hopefully one day soon we can do without any God damn communists and any congresses of theirs and a real congress of the Cuban people will ban the communist party forever in Cuba as they have done in Germany with the Nazis. Make a museum of their crimes for every child to visit for free and show what a disaster and tragedy they made of a vibrant republic after 50 years of mismanagement. Do not allow any communists to run even for dog catcher.

the party, the congresses, the meetings, all of the structural apparatuses, are a transparent cloak to give the appearance of legitimacy to a group of cagalitrosos (alvarez guedes: cagar por litro) who remain in power because they control with an iron fist the means of production and the means to remove them from power.

mcarthyism is alive and well in the fantasy world of the above bloggers.it just burns your behinds to see the cuban people still support the revolution, for all its faults, and you braniacs just can't get over that.every time you shout it just re-inforces what the cuban government says. so you want the government to fall, but your actions do so much to support it. maybe that's what you want deep down. vibrant republic? your gusanito is showing.

right on, lets put up that museum, right next to the Blackwater museum showing how American government supported such a murderous industry in Iraq, which was invaded by an illegal war. no, AMerican captialism is perfect, that's for surewhat is needed is a museum to show how many hundreds of thousands of innocents have been killed due to american policies in latin america for the past 100 years, and what a complete screw up they made of cuba when they enslaved it for 50 years.the other side, the historical fiction, you all know about, its in disneyland. the truth, try that for a change.but keep on thinking in black and white, it makes it easier to discount mitio